The present invention relates to a vision aid with three-dimensional image and information acquisition. A vision aid in the sense of the present invention also encompasses other image acquisition systems, such as e.g. residual-light amplifier or night vision apparatus for assisting the human visual faculty. Such vision aids or visual prostheses, such as e.g. a retina implant, can also encompass functions for image enlargement or for residual-light amplification.
Vision aids have already been developed in the form of implants for the retina of the human eye, which are provided for the treatment of patients, whose visual faculty has been partially or completely lost through defects in the retina. In the process, a microelectronic device is implanted in the region of the retina with a plurality of light-sensitive pixel elements, on which an image projected onto the retina via the still-intact natural light path of the eye is received. In other visual prostheses, the image acquisition occurs through an external camera, in particular a video camera, which is preferably accommodated in spectacles. The image acquired through the pixel elements or the camera is converted into electrical signals and delivered via stimulation electrodes by means of electrical stimulation impulses to the ganglion cells of the retina and the optic nerve, thereby to restore or to improve the visual faculty of the patient. The known vision aids have the disadvantage, however, that they exclusively process the image acquired via the natural light path of the eye or from the external camera. The thereby resulting image is therefore merely two-dimensional and contains no three-dimensional information.
In order to restore or to assist the natural visual faculty by means of a vision aid or a visual prosthesis as realistically as possible, it is therefore desirable to incorporate additional information in the image processing beyond the pure acquisition of a two-dimensional image.
This task is solved by the inventive device having the features according to claim 1. Preferred embodiments of the present invention are characterized in the sub-claims.